John Argo

John Argo (seen here during a relaxing summer evening at San Diego harbor) began publishing the first of his own complete digital novels (proprietary, not public domain) on the Web in 1996--for reading online (HTML) not on portable media (e.g., CD-ROM as was the norm at the time). The first of these novels were Neon Blue (suspense; now also retitled Girl, Unlocked); and This Shoal of Space (SF); followed by dozens more in the SF and Suspense Thriller categories.

His novels include the DarkSF Series (Doom Spore, Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D., etc); the Empire of Time Series (Tellerine; Mars the Divine; etc); and collections of short stories and novellas. By 2015, he had over 30 titles available in print and e-book editions.

John Argo has been a consummate story teller since childhood, with degrees in English and History. He served six years in the U.S. Army, and lived for many years in Europe. He speaks German, English, and other languages, and is a world traveler based at home in San Diego, California.

His approach is, he tells us, shamanistic. He believes that story tellers have a unique gift, dating to Paleolithic times, to enter spirit worlds and bring back magic events that the story teller recreates to entertain us in our caves or our camp fires.

He especially loves to capture the spirit of his most beloved movie and novel classics (Blade Runner, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, North by Northwest, and more). His gift is to be able to enjoy those realms of suspense, terror, adventure, wonder, romance--and share the interpretations of them with his readers.

At Clocktower Books, we believe you will be caught up in the classic Sense of Wonder of John Argo's stories. Like a skilled cinematographer, he takes his time and wraps the movie around you. There are no gimmicks, cheap tricks, or smoke and mirrors here--just solid story telling. The art of story telling is about artful withholding of information while building a nerve-wracking scaffold of suspense on a rack of pure, unbounded imagination.

It's less about running, shouting, shooting, and yelling (to paraphrase actor Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park II) than it is about tightening a noose of atmosphere and suspense slowly but surely around your soul. Give the film a little time to develop, and you'll always be amazed. We promise.